On May 25, APRC researcher Ia Katsia attended a working meeting organized by Geostat, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Food, and the Agriculture Organization. The aim of the meeting was to update the data on recent and pending changes in the Sample Survey of Agricultural Holdings and review the results of the 2014 Agricultural Census 2014.

Major improvements were introduced for the Sample Survey of Agricultural Holdings, such as preparing a new set of samples to be surveyed, an increase of sample size increase up to 12000, and updating weighting procedures. As part of their future plans, new indicators were presented which will be added to the survey. The APRC represents one of the biggest users of agricultural statistics, and Ia presented the APRC’s vision for agricultural statistics and its main concerns of the sector. The meeting was very productive and everyone agreed that Geostat is moving forward towards improving the gathering and presentation of agricultural statistics.